Synopses & Reviews
The year Lee Martin was born, his father lost both his hands in a farming accident. From Our House tells the story of a young mans growing up in the aftermath of this tragedy.
"All our lives have private truths," Martin writes, "and the truth about my father was that after his accident he brought a deep and abiding rage into our home." Yet Martin's mother, Beulah, never stopped hoping that God would smile on her family again. In this moving, uniquely American memoir, Lee Martin reveals how his family finally found salvation and the faith that would help to heal them all. In evocative, luminous language, he captures the beauty and the harsh realities of life in the rural midwest. And he talks about the rage-as well as the profound love-he felt toward his embittered, often violent father, and a legacy of shame that haunts him still.
Reminiscent of Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life and imbued with Martin's compassion and humanity, this story of one family's journey toward reconciliation and redemption is "a moving memoir that portrays the complexities that exist in many American families-equal parts frustration, anger, yearning, and tenacious familial love" (USA Today).
Review
A lyrical, finely wrought memoir of grief, pain, and joy. (Chicago Tribune)
Synopsis
While Lee Martin was still a baby, his father--once a robust, generous man--lost both hands in a farming accident. This candid memoir reveals how Lee grew up to know his father as a harsh, angry man, but "underneath it all is the painfully deep, strong current of real love" (Reeve Lindbergh, author of "Under a Wing").
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Lee Martin